Pride of America: The good, the great, and the needs work I would like to start by saying we loved the cruise and would definitely go again. I was going to use the old "good bad and ugly" cliche but none of it was bad or ugly. I would also like to address those who say that the service isn't as good on this ship because of the 75% American crew, we found this to be far from the case. Our room steward was excellent, main dining room staff was on point, and guest services staff were very friendly, in fact more friendly than we've encountered on other ships. Any problems we experienced were due to organization or layout issues (more on that later.)

Our free at sea package included a pre-cruise hotel night in Oahu at the Hyatt Regency and also free air from San Diego. We live in Atlanta but were able to get flights to San Diego with hotel for less than NCL was offering at the time. The transfers were $45PP which included all three stops (to hotel, to ship and to airport.) The flight was non-stop on Alaska Air, we got our flight details from NCL with 50 days to go. Initially we were not able to get seats together without paying an extra charge but a few days before the flight they released some of the premium seats so we were able to make a last minute change.

An NCL agent greeted us at baggage claim, but due to traffic and several incoming flights it took over an hour before we were on the bus and then another 45 minutes to the hotels (there was one stop before ours.) We spent a lot of time standing around at the baggage claim and it was a fairly long walk to the bus. No problem for us but be aware if you have mobility issues. The bus pickup area had plenty of seating and it would have been nice if they would have directed us there before waiting for the other flights but once we were at our hotel check in went smoothly and there were no issues with the reservations or flights. Read more